Why I won't be celebrating Israel's 75th anniversary (Opinion)

Supporters of Palestine demonstrate near the intersection of Weslayan and the Southwest Freeway, near the Israeli consulate, as they show their support to the Palestinian resistance to the ongoing violence in the Middle East Tuesday, May 18, 2021 in Houston. Hundreds of protestors chanted slogans of "Free, free Palestine." throughout the demonstration.

Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

“Oh my God! How could it be that our people, who never attacked anyone, nor did any harm to anyone, how and why in one day, have all the nations of all the world suddenly turned against us?”

On April 27, a large number of representatives from the U.S. State Department, former U.S. ambassadors to Israel, Middle East experts, notable Zionist individuals and heads of powerful Zionist organizations devoted to Israel advocacy will hold a conference at Rice’s Baker Institute of Public Policy to mark the 75th year of Israel’s existence.

For many people, including me, the anniversary is nothing to celebrate. During the 1948 Palestine War, Zionist and Israeli forces expelled or forced the flight of between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians, grabbing their land, turning them into homeless refugees, and thereby decimating the economic, political and social fabric of Palestine. The American people, politicians and compassionate people everywhere deserve to know the truth about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and about its origin, present and future.

I am one of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced from our homeland. We confronted oppression, marginalization and historical erasure to make room for a new Jewish state to be erected on our land, a humanitarian calamity beyond imagination. In Arabic, “Al Nakba”: the Catastrophe.

In November 1947, the Anglo-Zionist colonial project to deny the Palestinian past and destroy its present and future was realized by UN Resolution 181, which recognized the state of Israel.

I vividly remember listening to radio broadcasts announcing the list of countries recognizing the state of Israel on our land. My mother exclaimed, “Oh my God! How could it be that our people, who never attacked anyone, nor did any harm to anyone, how and why in one day, have all the nations of all the world suddenly turned against us?”

This illustrates the power of lobbying and its influence on manipulating even the smartest and most decent politician to ultimately secure any shameful outcome. The Zionist lobby of that era included Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, Lord Rothschild and David Ben-Gurion, who successfully pressured world leaders President Harry Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Lord Balfour and even Joseph Stalin.

Palestinian voices were either not heard or dismissed. A Palestinian lobby didn’t exist. Yes, we might have had a poet or a clergyman or a schoolteacher who spoke to some people here and there. But world political leaders, especially of the colonial superpowers, were more attuned to the demands of the Zionist lobbyists, and they hardly heard about Palestinian concerns.

Zionism, the idea of establishing a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, resonated with world leaders because of the relentless persecution, oppression, humiliation and suffering vilely inflicted upon them by various European nations and Russia. The European nations and the Soviet Union washed their centuries-long sinful history of oppression against the Jewish people with our Palestinian blood.

The state of Israel’s ambition to annex more Palestinian land and expel more Palestinians from their homes continues to be a full-time project. It was largely encouraged, protected and funded by the government of the United States, as well as supporters of Zionist causes.

How much more suffering should the Palestinian people endure before the superpowers start thinking of a permanent, peaceful and lasting normalcy based on international law and human dignity? How many more Palestinians should be displaced from their land to make room for additional Jewish settlements? And when will the government of the United States quit abusing its veto power in each and every Security Council resolution to block any chance for justifiable action?

By some calculations, as of 2022, Palestinians constitute almost 21 percent of Israel proper. And in the contested area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — which includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem — Palestinians are the majority of the population, 51 percent, with a population of 7.5 million.

Amnesty International has found that in Israel, Palestinians are “treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.” If this is not apartheid, what is?

The ideologically driven Zionist concept of creating a purely Jewish state has proven impossible to achieve. The allies and supporters of Israel, as well as all peace and justice seekers, should adopt, promote and finance a policy of coexistence between all peoples in the region based on justice, international law and human dignity. It would be a great favor for the Jewish people in Israel and everywhere, as well as for the Palestinian people — and more so for human dignity.

Michael S. Kardoush, an engineer, was born in Nazareth, Palestine. He lives in Sugar Land.